New World Symphony

 

So, it was composed a hundred and twenty years ago; I “discovered“ it 60 years ago when I was a fledgling college student.  It was awesome to my classical loving age-group then.  It is still emotional and tear-producing.  I am so happy that it still attracts the young.

I am watching a performance by a young symphony cast  on uTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_tPb4JFgmw

It is another of these amazing groups of teen-agers, playing symphonies.

America, this new land of hopes and dreams: Yes for Europeans in the nineteenth century when it was written, but for all peoples in the twentieth century, and it is still a land of wide-open spaces.

But are we closing the doors?

Closing entry to the hopes and dreams of the rest of the world?  We have the space for billions more.  We have the resources for billions more.  We could be the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We merely need to accept all incoming others as equals and set up systems that assure that we are all treated equally.

There’s room for everyone at the table.